Thorough understanding of the effects of shear stress on stem cells is critical for the rationale design of large-scale production of cell-based therapies. This is of growing importance as emerging tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications drive the need for clinically relevant numbers of both pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) and cells derived from PSCs. Here, we describe the use of a custom parallel plate bioreactor system to impose fluid shear stress on a layer of PSCs adhered to protein-coated glass slides. This system can be useful both for basic science studies in mechanotransduction and as a surrogate model for bioreactors used in large-scale production.
Keywords: Bioreactor; Embryonic stem cells; Induced pluripotent stem cells; Mechanotransduction; Physical microenvironment; Shear stress; Stem cell differentiation.